Category Archives: Implications for teaching

Teaching 2015 (review)

Posted on August 22, 2016 by draulston

Below is a set of notes to myself at the start of the last school year.  The start of this year seems an appropriate time to review them. This document is an attempt to put together some things I know … Continue reading →

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Thinking mathematically

Posted on June 6, 2016 by draulston

In an email exchange involving several former students (now at college) and a colleague, I said, This discussion reminds me that one of the great challenges as a math teacher is to combine the necessary (at least in our current curriculum) skill-set … Continue reading →

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Cum grano salis

Posted on June 6, 2016 by draulston

One of the things my Latin II class provided was a list of pithy sayings we had to memorize.  Some I’d never heard of at the tender age of 13, but I still remember a few, and one of them … Continue reading →

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Note to a headmaster

Posted on February 9, 2016 by draulston

My headmaster sent me a link to an NPR story that he thought I’d enjoy.  I sent the following response… This reminds me of a story I may have told you before: one reason I enjoy teaching calculus and post-calculus … Continue reading →

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“Close reading” aka “attention to detail”

Posted on January 26, 2016 by draulston

A number of years ago, a colleague of mine from KIPP came to visit one of my classes (senior English) and was amazed that we spent an entire class period on one paragraph (I think it was a Borges story … Continue reading →

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“The right questions”

Posted on January 25, 2016 by draulston

Zizek (a contemporary philosopher in Slovenia) has an interesting video clip (quite short) that you can find here on the importance of asking good questions.  While I think a better approach would be to talk about asking “good questions” as opposed … Continue reading →

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“Guides on the side” still need to use teachable moments

Posted on January 22, 2016 by draulston

There’s a slogan that purports to capture the essence of student-centric learning: teachers should be a “guide on the side” rather than the “sage on the stage.” But that shouldn’t mean they’re not teaching: they still need to teach, but … Continue reading →

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Questions from 1.19.16 English class

Posted on January 20, 2016 by draulston

And here are the students’ questions the next day.  I have printed a handout of these and will use them as a self-referential teaching tool since a number of the questions have to do with asking and evaluating questions.   … Continue reading →

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Take-aways from 1.19.16 English class

Posted on January 20, 2016 by draulston

You may remember that I made a Google form to ask students what the “major take-away” of the class was and what question(s) remained after the discussion. I give the responses below; at this point, I leave the lessons to … Continue reading →

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Asking Questions redux (part deux)

Posted on January 19, 2016 by draulston

Having talked about today’s class in the previous post, I thought I’d write about what I’m going to do tomorrow as follow-up. I’ll start with a two-question survey sometimes used in large college lecture courses (that I’ve occasionally used in … Continue reading →

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